Part 1
I believe that people… can spend their whole lives working and living for things that are trivial and unfulfilling. I also believe that people can spend their lives living and dying for a true purpose.
I believe that society… is composed of many diverse individual parts, economic classes, races, religions, and cultures. I also believe that societies rise and fall. Succeed and fail.
I believe that government… Has the capability of providing its citizens both liberty and slavery. It is up to the citizens to decide, indirectly, which one they want.
I believe that justice… is a concept that Darwinian Evolution cannot fully explain. Without an eternal absolute standard of right and wrong (which Darwinian Evolution has no room for) there can be no such thing as true justice. We may make our own standards of what is just and unjust, but they are subjective and morally relative
I believe that knowledge… is infinite, just as the universe is. For in an infinite universe there are inifinite things to know. The problem is that we, our bodies, our minds are finite. How can a finite brain contain the infinite?
I believe that science… is useful in explaining what our minds can understand. however it fails catastrophically when trying to explain the unnatural, that which is not comprehensible by our finite minds.
I believe that reality… is nothing like what they show on television. Cogito ergo sum?
I believe that life… was my favorite cereal growing up. I used to look at the “where’s waldo” puzzles on the back as i was eating my cereal. Its also a board game that tried to make you believe that wealth, cars and houses with a white picket fence out front were the only things worth living for.
I believe that happiness… is a yuppie word. The pursuit of it is ultimately a self-serving one. And i’m not sure people really know what it is most of the time.
I believe that goodness… cannot exist without a divine moral code. Without an objective standard, the concepts of good and bad are meaningless. What is a good thing for the bird is a bad thing for the worm.
I believe that death… is the final frontier of exploration. I believe it is going to be an incredible adventure. And i believe ironically that only in death will I find what life truly is.
I believe that God… is a mystery. A largely incomprehensible being that we like to reason away or ignore. Things that are greater than us that we don’t understand are frightening.
Part II
I’m choosing “I believe that goodness…” to write about. My definition of good and bad, right and wrong came from two places. First and foremost, i was born with an innate sense of right and wrong. I think all humans are. It may not have even been as complex as right and wrong. Call it a soul, a conscience, call it what you will. Everyone is born with it. The other influence on my belief was the way my parents raised me. This was with a strict moral code. Obedience, respect, telling the truth, working hard, etc. Though the morality itself wasn’t what i was raised to live for, rather it was something that would help me grow up in the right way. It affects every decision I make. Ultimately because I live under the law. The cops, the government, my parents, my landlord. It has a profound effect on my life.
Part III
An opposing view to my held belief would be that right and wrong are subjective. I would have a hard time describing why a person would hold that viewpoint. I think it would be because they do not want to condemn others as being “wrong.” But they only believe that because they think it is truth. In otherwords they will condemn an absolute truth claim, but in that very process make one of their own! People on the other side seem to share an experience of comig in conflict with other people who sincerely believe the opposite of they do. They then find bits and pieces of truth in a viewpoint they previously thought was wrong. This concept can be revolutionary, that truth can lie in any idea or worldview. Instead of directing them to seek out an over-arching absolute truth, they turn to a belief that everyone has the full truth. Our experiences differ, because when i realized that there are pieces of truth in everything, i didn’t accept it point blank, i looked further for one truth. There is absolutely a set of beliefs held on each side. That belief is in an absolute truth claim. Although many relativists may not realize they are doing it, by saying that everyone’s beliefs are equally true they are making an absolute truth claim. They are making an absolute claim that there are no absolutes. Ah, the irony.
